Accounts Receivable Financial Analyst and Team Lead

Essential Job Functions: 

The Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services Charleston (CGFS), Department of State (DoS) has a requirement for an Accounts Receivable Financial Analyst to perform accounting, reconciliation, collections, data entry, systems analysis and support services in the area of the Accounts Receivables Branch.   This role also serves as the section’s Team Lead.  

Interested in Applying?  I have a few preliminary questions…

• Do you love analysis and problem solving?
• Do you love figuring out how to make a business process more efficient?
• Do you enjoy helping other people be successful and grow?
• Can you create and maintain Excel spreadsheets with your intermediate knowledge of Excel?
• Are you looking for a job in the Department of State, located in Charleston, SC?

If you answered yes to most of these, keep reading on.

Why is this Different from other Job Opportunities?

All personnel must be able to either possess or obtain a security clearance of Secret, to be issued by Department of State, Diplomatic Security.   Important note to consider: A SECRET clearance will open a lot of doors for your career in the Government to include possibilities of being hired directly. 

You Must Meet These Minimum Requirements:

• A four-year degree from an accredited college or university is required, plus 2 years of experience
  • 2 years of college + 4 years of experience relative to the specific position, or 
  • 6 years of experience relevant to the specific position 
• Previous Management or Supervisory experience is also required
• Experience performing technical tasks and analysis related to Accounts Receivables as indicated below.

We are also Looking for:

• Experience in accounting systems, practices and procedures is desirable 
• Good understanding of government accounting and standard General Ledger requirements is desired

• Experience providing senior accountant services to DoS financial service organizations

•  Experience providing leadership to less experienced team members in the areas of training, work product review, consultation and problem solving.

• Functional expertise and experience in Federal Accounting Operations, policies, practices, reporting, and business process/requirements is desirable and may be substituted for the IT experience.

•Ability to acquire in-depth understanding of the function and/or the automated systems that support the business process or task.

 Our most Successful Employees in this Position Demonstrate:

• Ability to obtain in-depth functional knowledge of financial operations that provides a basis for analyzing business processes, information flows and relationships to the supporting automated systems.

•  Current knowledge or ability to learn Department of State accounting and financial policies and procedures as contained in the Foreign Affairs Manual and Foreign Affairs Handbook, as supplemented with internal operating procedures and its application to DoS financial and accounting systems is preferred.

• Possess technology savviness and ability to catch on quickly; position requires experience with managing a high-volume inbox and phone calls.  Knowledge of computer-based applications including word-processing, web-based applications, spreadsheets (VLOOKUP and pivot tables, and database management).

• The candidate should be a team player with a positive attitude.

• Able to multi-task during times of high call and email volume to accurately address customer inquiries.

• Escalate issues to the Supervisor and Manager as appropriate.

• Attention to detail, critical thinking, and out-of-the-box thinking is encouraged, ability to work and mold to an ever-changing environment is a must.

•Perform extensive research and analysis of accounts when notified of accounting errors; take appropriate action regarding notification of bankruptcies and death; coordinate with cross-servicing portfolio manager regarding write-off transactions.

•Ability to compile and analyze data from various sources into an organized report format; coordinate with team members to ensure proper financial management.

 Day-to-day Job Responsibilities include:

•Daily services will involve accounting transaction analysis, verification of accounting system interfaces, identification of accounting errors, causes for the errors and taking appropriate corrective action, making accounting entries into the automated system as needed

• Maintain memoranda accounting records and spreadsheets as needed to supplement the official accounting records and to supplement work measurement

• Perform General Ledger reconciliations, preparation of financial statements and other data maintenance requirements associated with providing accounting services

• Safeguard and secure Personable Identifiable information, adhere to OMB’s A-123 Internal Controls and provide input into the annual review of the A -123 budget cycle memos.

•  Provide excellent customer service to debtors by responding timely to phone calls and monitor/respond to emails inquiries until debts are fully collected or referred to Treasury for further cross-serving functions.

• Create, update and monitor accounts for collection receivables in our proprietary accounting system,  Global Financial Management System (GFMS)

• Ensure that rejected transactions in our accounting system are corrected and processed within the correct accounting period.

•Process refunds for overcollections or overseas tax refunds; seek proper approval for waiver of fees if principal is paid in full.

•Respond timely to documentation requests from internal and external customers following all security and privacy protocols

• Process credit card or ACH collection transactions via the Treasury Pay.gov system on behalf of customers. 
• Maintain accounting records and spreadsheets as needed to supplement the official accounting records for all transactions. Ensure all related documentation pertaining to debt is uploaded into the Document Imaging system. 
• Research aged debts, by requesting additional documentation from Diplomatic Research and preparing Loan recovery spreadsheets to correctly calculate fees based on new receivable status or collections. 
• Maintain assigned accounts to ensure they do not become delinquent, refer delinquent accounts and delinquent installment agreements to Treasury Cross-servicing.
• Update Treasury’s Cross-servicing referral cumulative report to ensure proper debt referral on to Treasury Cross-servicing functions and process IPAC collections received Treasury’s collection efforts.
• Generate, modify and export reports from our Global Business Intelligence (GBI) software to analyze trends, process deficiencies within any overpayment portfolios assigned; perform identification and problem-solving associated with Debt Collection to improve collection results. 
• Support ISO 9001 requirements by reviewing existing Quality Work instructions (QWIs), Reference Documents (RDs), Forms, etc. to ensure they are relevant and consistent with business processes and CGFS policy requirements.
• Other duties as assigned. 

Team Lead duties for this position include:

• Become a subject-matter expert in the Department
• Work closely with DoS Management in ensuring staff produce high quality work and help in driving process improvement initiatives.     
• A percentage of time (up to 25%) is allocated to assist the Contract Manager in performance management (coaching, mentoring, training, onboarding and interviewing) of the contractor personnel in a division to ensure work requirements within the department are being met.   
• Acts as liaison between the contractor employees and Federal Managers. 
• Work on skill development by ensuring employees have the appropriate tools/resources, training or re-training, job shadowing, or work with the contract company on skill-based training options.  
• Assists the Federal and Contract Managers with getting new hires oriented to the division.    
• Ensure contractor staff are adhering to DoS and division specific time and attendance policies, to include adhering to the telework agreement schedules. 
• Review the sign/in out logs against employees’ timesheet each pay period to ensure they match. 
• Monitor contractor scheduling and leave requests in the office to ensure appropriate staffing/coverage. 
• Review requests for overtime against workload requirements. Assists in making recommendations on getting an accurate level of effort.   
• Attend ad hoc briefing meetings as required by the IFAS Assistant Project Manager to address department-wide issues/concerns, initiatives (projects), workload requirements for contractor employees.
• Ensures the on-the-job training is documented on the On-the-Job Form and employee becomes competent in the position.  

Work Schedule

• Standard 8-hour shift between 600 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., with a 45-minute non-compensated lunch.
• Additional hours may be required with Project Manager and DoS approval.
• 100% on-site position

Software Systems Utilized  

Accounting Systems: GFMS and RFMS

Reporting Database: Global Business Intelligence

 Document Storage: Document Imaging system

Office: Microsoft Office

Collection Research: LexisNexis